Quirky starts new season in Charger Bar

Quirky had a perfect 2015 campaign until she finished sixth behind Heza Dasha Fire in the $600,000 Champion of Champions at Los Alamitos on Dec. 12. She is back in the $100,000 Charger Bar Handicap on Sunday at Los Alamitos and will be favored to win the 400-yard race for fillies and mares.

There was no shame in the loss to Heza Dasha Fire, the leading contender to be named 2015 World Champion Running Quarter Horse, the equivalent of the Horse of the Year title.

Quirky won her first four starts last year, a streak that began in the Charger Bar Handicap last January.

Owned by Los Alamitos chairman Ed Allred and trained by Scott Willoughby, Quirky faces a tough challenge in the Grade 1 Charger Bar. The competition includes Sass Me Blue, a 4-year-old who was second in the Southern California Derby on Dec. 20; Solid Connection, who was ninth in the Champion of Champions; and Apolitical Zoom, Take a Look, and Political Chick, the first three finishers of the Las Damas Handicap for fillies and mares Nov. 21.

Quirky, 5, has won 7 of 15 starts and earned $343,598. She ended 2014 with a win in the Southern California Derby. The 2015 Charger Bar is one of her most prestigious wins, along with the Grade 1 Mildred Vessels Handicap last September, the track’s other leading race for fillies and mares.

In the Champion of Champions, Quirky finished 4 1/2 lengths behind Heza Dasha Fire after breaking to the inside in the 440-yard race.

On Sunday, Sass Me Blue might be the biggest danger to Quirky. Trained by Mike Casselman, Sass Me Blue was third to Heza Dasha Fire in the Golden State Derby in August and second to that rival in the Los Alamitos Super Derby in November.

Apolitical Zoom, trained by Bret Vickery, won her first stakes in the Las Damas. Last February, she was second against males in the Los Alamitos Winter Derby.